Drawing from a national survey of 9,000 community and technical college department chairs in the United States and Canada, this book offers insights on the personal characteristics, responsibilities, challenges, and strategies of chairs. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the study, including information on its rationale and purpose, instrument development, the population surveyed, and research design and procedures. Based on responses from approximately 3,000 chairs, chapter 2 offers a profile of the individual demographic characteristics of the respondents, and their prior experience, type of appointment, and future goals. Chapter 3 focuses on the characteristics of instructional units and their campuses, providing information on number of students and faculty, instructional focus, degrees offered, and instructional programs provided. In chapter 4, the chairs' beliefs and values are examined with respect to curriculum, students, mission, access, admissions policies, and relationships to business and industry. Chapters 5 through 7 relate chairs' perceptions of the importance of their interpersonal, administrative, and leadership roles; of such tasks as faculty selection, provision of feedback, budgeting, professional development, and communication; and of administrative, leadership, interpersonal, and personal skills. Chapter 8 focuses on job challenges for the coming 5 years, while chapter 9 deals with chairs' perceptions of selected strategies in relation to these challenges. Chapter 10 deals with selected institutional and personal characteristics and their relationship to responses. Chapter 11 offers concluding comments and recommendations for future research. Contains 102 references, and the survey instrument. (KP)